Arribada

"The arrival" refers to mass sea turtle nesting on the beach of Olive Ridley sea turtles. It happens in Mexico near Puerto Escondido, noted to be the largest arribada, but it also happens at Ostional, 1 hour south of Junquillal, where we are staying. Furthermore, the arribada just started two days ago according to a guide Christine had been texting. Since last night was a bust for turtle watching at our beach, we decided we would go to Ostional as a day trip. The problem was the beach can only be visited with a guide during the arribada and the guide only offers tours at 5am or 7 pm. The sun sets at 530 pm. There was no way the kids could be awake at 5 am. So we would have to do the evening tour and drive back in the dark or camp in the RV. 

Morning consisted of homeschool and then beach time.

At the beach we just missed the volunteers releasing 67 hatchlings. The tide was very high but we had a great time playing in the surf.

For lunch we headed back to the Airbnb and grilled up some short ribs from Price Smart and two hot dogs for Dd. 

After lunch we decided to head to Ostional. There was another beach at San Juanillo I wanted to see. 

The road was terrible. Potholed bumpy dirt road for abor 20 miles and asphalt interspersed and a handful of small bridges and one river crossing.

We arrived at San Juanillo at sunset and the kids collected seashells. The sunset and twin beach was great. One beach on north and south sides of a spit. There was more commerce at San Juanillo than at Junquillal. 

We then headed to Ostional after the sunset at 6 pm. It was supposed to be only 15 minutes away but there was a river crossing and a small narrow bridge.

The bridge indicated 3 ton limit. We are at 4.2 metric tons. The river crossing was shallow enough but the pebbles worried me that we wouldn't be able to climb the other side. The kids were starting to cry. We thought about heading back or parking somewhere and walking. We texted the guide and he said we would be fine but I was not as confident. He sent a driver in van to us and indicated we could cross or he could take us. We had the kids climb out and Christine and I backed up to park but then the driver went across the river, and I decided to follow. He was right, it was no problem. Everyone piled in and we made it to the guide's house right at 7pm. We paid $10 for the driver's assistance. The tour was $90 for the 4 of us (kids half price). We headed out to the beach and immediately there were turtles nesting.

We walked along and saw hatchlings struggling to head to the surf. We watched a couple turtles lay eggs and then we found ourselves surrounded by turtles.  It was incredible. After 90 minutes we walked back to the van and thanked the guide and apologized for being late and didn't know if we would drive back tonight or camp. Dd wanted to camp and Ellie wanted to drive back. It was only 830pm so we decided to drive back.

It was a bumpy ride but we made it back in 90 minutes. Hopefully the van doesn't have any damage from the road.